Lance Bernard: Newspapers, TV have ‘more’ free speech

There has been much anger over the Supreme Court decisions regarding campaign financing in the Citizens United and McCutcheon cases. While I deplore the influence money has on political campaigns as much as anyone, to say that the rich have more “free speech” than the average person ignores the fact that many other people and organizations also have more.

There has been much anger over the Supreme Court decisions regarding campaign financing in the Citizens United and McCutcheon cases. While I deplore the influence money has on political campaigns as much as anyone, to say that the rich have more “free speech” than the average person ignores the fact that many other people and organizations also have more.

Not an election goes by when the editorial pages of newspapers across the country print their candidate and proposition recommendations. It therefore can be said that the editors of The Modesto Bee, for instance, have much more “free speech” than I do. And how about all the political commentators on television? They influence millions of people across the nation. Even political comedians (e.g., Dennis Miller and Stephen Colbert) have far more “free speech” than the average person.

So I don’t want to hear any more hand-wringing about the rich having excessive “free speech.” Keep the argument focused on the links between money and possible corruption.